Linder had been struggling with his camera for the longest time and he was getting exhausted with it.

He'd been fiddling, trying to understand how it worked before he could take his masterpiece. Not that it was necessarily going to be that, in fact there was no way it could be a masterpiece. Not with his blatant lack of skills. But he would still try.

Of course he knew how to use a camera, he just didn't know how to use it well, and the one he held currently had so many controls as if just to make his life more miserable than it was.

He stalked little insects all morning, trying to get a decent picture. He wanted a creepy-crawly or a beautiful bug.

Normal people would be taking pictures of trees or leaves or shrubbery or even flowers they had a garden for crying out loud. Why am I looking for insects like some anteater?

And then it struck him, of course there was a pond in the garden. It was perfect, there was probably lots of dragonflies hovering around. Bingo!

Linder arrived at the garden to find a tiny swarm hovering over the pond just like he thought. He quickly got to work and took his first picture of them.

He looked at the dragonfly in his camera. What an ugly picture. He thought.

He fiddled with the settings and tried again. Someone was going to have to explain to him how the next picture he took was pitch black when it was broad daylight. Frustration furrowed his eyebrows.

He saw the shadow before he heard the voice. It looked closer then stopped. "Thought that would be you," it said.

Linder was a little shocked but he knew the voice. It had to be...

"What are you doing here? Hi!"

"I just happened to be around the area," Tadashi smiled at him for the first time. "Let me see that," he said making for the camera that Linder willingly put in his hand.

After studying the two pictures for a while, he spoke. "This is awful."

"I know right?" Linder answered, agreeing with him. "Who knew using an actual camera could be so hard?"

"It's pretty easy," Tadashi tried to persuade him. "Come on, I'll show you."

Oh thank God.

Linder was hooked onto every word the man uttered, absorbing like a sponge. The camera had looked so complex but it was actually really simple.

He couldn't understand just how perfectly he explained every single control in less than five minutes.

"Here's the last trick," Tadashi said. "You could just press this button halfway and it'll activate autofocus first. What are you trying to capture, a dragonfly?" He asked.

"Or two," Linder replied. "I'm doing it to myself, God knows the little stubborn things can't stay in one place."

Tadashi chuckled. "Then try something that stays in one place."

With the camera still in his hand, he clicked on a button and Linder's eyes went wide. "What did you do that for?"

Tadashi showed him the picture. "There was a dragonfly on your head."

"Yuck," Linder said when he looked at himself, then chuckled. "Only the dragonfly looks good."

Tadashi kept looking at the picture. "I wouldn't say so. Don't be so hard on yourself. Why dragonflies?"

"They look really cool, I mean just look at them. Did you know they fly so fast they could go over thirty miles in an hour? I mean, not many insects could do that. They even fly backwards, how cool is that? I hate that they eat each other sometimes but I forgive them because they don't bite people. Did you know that prehistoric dragonflies were large? They had wingspans the size of a newborn baby, the size of a newborn baby!" Linder said like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "They must have been so beautiful, a lot more than they are right now you know? I still don't get why they hover over water so much, I mean they could die, they..."

Linder stopped as his face turned mortified. "Sorry, did I bore you with my blabbering? Sorry... I talked your ear off–"

"I'm fascinated actually," Tadashi said honestly.

"You are?"

"I really am. I've got to go now, but I think good luck is on your side, another one just landed on your head.

Linder wasn't thinking when his hand shot to his head, the dragonfly flew around him, then away.

"Thank you for showing me," Linder said while accepting the camera that was being placed back into his hands.

"It was my pleasure," he said then left.

Linder was relieved as he watched him go, and then he was alone again with his little swarm of dragonflies.

꧁__________꧂

Never did Jet ever think he'd be in the position he was at the moment, there was a knife in his hand and a weight pressing on his body from the back.

There was also a hand on his hand that held the knife. "When you let my hand guide you, dicing isn't so bad is it?" Asked the Master, obviously enjoying this more than Jet did.

"Okay?" He asked Jet to make sure everything was alright.

Jet nodded, unsure of himself. Why had he gotten himself into this again?

"I'm genuinely surprised that this is all new to you," the Master said.

"I'm genuinely surprised that you know anything about it. Definitely think you were spoon fed with a golden spoon from birth," replied Jet.

"It was silver, not a big fan of gold," the Master replied.

"Tsk," Jet couldn't think of anything to say.

"How good was the food, so much that you were never tempted to do it yourself even once?"

"You wouldn't know, bet you've never tasted street food before."

"Once, from a local store."

"Getting something from a local store is called street food to you?"

"It's not?"

Jet laughed a little. "Your diapers were golden too weren't they?"

"Jet, don't insult me," the Master said. "I crawled to the bathroom every time I needed to do my business."

It was the first genuine laugh Jet had let the Master hear. But he didn't want it to linger in the air between them so he went back the task at hand.

"I think I've got this," he said.

"You're a fast learner."

The Master bent his head and angled Jet's face to access his lips, he placed a kiss on them.

And then they heard the click of a camera.

Jet immediately snapped his head to look for where it had come from. Had someone taken a picture of them? Why-

He didn't get the chance to find them, the Master didn't let him scan further. He was flipped around so that his hands now behind, bracing himself with the help of the counter.

"Wonder how we'll look in that picture," the Master said like he was happy it had happened. "Husband and husband? That would be so romantic wouldn't it?" He chuckled deeply. His breath tickled the side of Jet's neck as he latched his lips onto it.

Jet tried to scoff at the statement but he couldn't make the sound, he was too busy focusing on the lips that burned the length of his neck.

There was another click, but the Master's grip only tightened to keep him still. "Let them," he said and got back to Jet's arched neck.

Jet wondered who it could be. It couldn't be Riley, the man would have made it a point of taking their pictures.

It obviously wasn't Zel, his mood seemed to be down lately, and even if it really was him, he'd out himself before Jet could ponder longer. That just seemed to be the kind of person he was.

Mason despised him, it couldn't be him.

Linder? Pierre?

Suddenly, he saw an image in his mind that he wasn't even planning to see. The Master pounding into him aggressively while Pierre's beautiful lips wrapped around his cock.

"Jet?"

"Huh?" He answered, clearly so out of it.

"That was a lot of thinking there, you couldn't even hear me call you twice. I wonder," the Master narrowed his eyes at him. "What's got you so hard?"

All his thoughts and replies were cast into the wind when the Master's hand fell onto his nape and then he was pulled into a hard and yet soft kiss.

Strong hands found his hardness and Jet gasped, torn between pushing him away and kissing him back desperately.

When they finally broke apart, Jet asked about something else entirely. "What about the cooking?"

"That's the last thing on your mind right now and you know it," he said. Infuriatingly enough, he was right. "But if you want it that badly, we'll get back to it, right after this."

"Wha- "

Jet's lips were immediately claimed again. Not giving him any chance to finish whatever he wanted to say.

They broke apart for air. Their chests rising and falling as Jet's eyes darted from the Master's lips to his face and back again.

To Jet's horror, the Master's assistant walked in. He didn't avert his eyes at the sight of them, he didn't even seem surprised or bothered in anyway.

Jet was so uncomfortable.

He was tempted to hide in the crook of the Master's neck, or even just turn elsewhere, but by some grace he held himself.

"Jet," Tadashi acknowledged politely and nodded his head once.

Jet tried to repeat the gesture but it probably looked as weird as hell. It didn't help either that the space between him and the Master was close to nonexistent.

And just like he came, Tadashi continued into the house. "I'll be in the study," he said to the Master and walked away.

After what seemed like a whole minute and a peck on his lips, the Master untangled himself from Jet.

"You can start dicing some fruit for me little cub, we'll continue later. Kiss me first before I go," he said like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Jet turned his head the other way. "We've done enough kissing," he replied. He pretended like the carrots on the board looked more appealing than the Master pointing at his cheek.

"Fine," the Master sighed. "You're doing really great anyway, you should know."

Jet didn't want to admit how good it felt to hear that. Instead he scoffed at the Master. "Hmf," he let out.

This time, the Master chuckled. "Such a brat," he said then smacked his ass and squeezed hard enough for Jet to squirm. "I'll have to correct it later," he said and walked away.

꧁______꧂

When the Master got to the study, Tadashi was sitting down, crossing his legs waiting for him.

Whatever he'd been thinking about, the Master would never know. His expression didn't  even change when he noticed he was in the room. He only spoke.

"I'll get straight to the point, you have to attend the gala," said Tadashi.

"Thanks for the reminder," the Master replied while lowering himself onto a seat. "But I don't think that's the reason you are here."

He was right, he knew. Tadashi would never bother him with something pointless.

"It's been more than two weeks and they just won't stop," Tadashi's brows furrowed.

Tadashi always spoke in twists and turns when something was really serious, the Master's guess was an identity leak or a minor breach of privacy.

"Get to the point, Tadashi," said the Master.

As if seriousness had levels, Tadashi became even more serious.

"I didn't think it would matter at first but no one knows Pierre is here, it seems," said Tadashi, his mind working.

"As it should be," the Master replied.

"As it should be," Tadashi agreed. "Then comes the big issue... "

For their own safety, every detail about the competitors was classified information, even if they didn't know it.

Before leaving their lives behind, they could tell anyone they wanted, a friend or family. It was only natural that someone close to them or someone they trusted, knew where they were, or what they were doing.

Exposing them to anyone else, especially after they'd settled in could mean putting targets on their backs once they left the house. So Tadashi was definitely onto something if he suddenly thought it was a bad thing.

"What are you trying to say?"

"A lot of people are on the lookout for Pierre, a lot of powerful people. And they are really desperate."

The Master looked at him with calculating eyes, unfazed by everything he'd just found out. The timing just had to be shit. "Who do I have to fight?"